Dear Sir:
In the February 1 Chronicle ("Lab Owners Stand by Call to Police"), Amy Miller describes anti-censorship activists' response to actions by Zona Photographic Laboratories as a "rampage." This characterization is insulting and untrue.
In their letter to Judge Roanne Sragow, Zona co-owners Rowena Otremba and Mary Osgood darkly allude to a "campaign of distortion" conducted in the media by Toni Marie Angeli's supporters. There is no "campaign." I have turned down seven aggressive offers to discuss this case on the air. Otremba and Osgood apparently mean statements made on television by distinguished First Amendment lawyer Harvey Silverglate, photographer Elsa Dorfman, and Bob Chatelle of the National Writers Union and the Boston Coalition for Freedom of Expression (BCFE). Silverglate said Zona should have addressed its concerns differently, Dorfman said Zona committed a "blunder," and Chatelle said Zona "made a serious mistake." Zona has reacted to these temperate remarks with seemingly vindictive defensiveness and classic Pecksniffian piety.
In its six years of existence, the Boston Coalition for Freedom of Expression has never pursued a program of bullying or harassment, and it never will. I know of no direct action against Zona by members of the BCFE or any other group. Zona has not, to my knowledge, been picketed. We have not contacted Zona directly, nor have we encouraged any of "hate mail" they claim to have received, nor have we encouraged people to call and vent their anger. We have no knowledge of any organized attacks on Zona. Although the BCFE is now reluctantly considering a boycott, no such action was originally planned.
The fact remains that even those who reject Ms. Angeli's version of events at Zona last November 2 have just cause to view Zona's behavior with dismay. Having placed a smutty interpretation on several innocuous photos, the amateur porn vigilantes of Zona joined the Cambridge police in a sting operation requiring Zona employees to lie. This maneuver was invasive, destructive, deeply provocative, and in the sorry tradition of recent attacks on such photographers as Alice Sims, Patti Ambrogi, Jock Sturges, Robyn Stoutenberg, Marilyn Zimmerman, Ejlat Feuer and many others.
Ms. Otremba and Ms. Osgood keep reiterating their good intentions as if acting on behalf of "the children" justifies practically anything. But no one disputes their intentions, only their judgment. Many who would be willing to forgive them this lapse find their dogged attempts to demonize Ms. Angeli indicative of the immaturity and arrogance they ascribe to a person we think they owe an apology.
In a climate of fear, panic, and prurient hysteria, people think with their emotions. It is time Ms. Otremba and Ms. Osgood used their brains. Ms. Angeli, meanwhile, is to be applauded for following her conscience.
Sincerely,
James D'Entremont
Director
Boston Coalition for Freedom of Expression
cc: Rowena Otremba and Mary Osgood; Harvey Silverglate, Esq.; Elsa Dorfman; John Swomley, Esq.; Marjorie Heins, Esq., ACLU Arts Censorship Project; Marilyn Arsem, Mobius; John Jacobs, Photographic Resource Center; Anne Green, People for the American Way; Leanne Katz, National Coalition Against Censorship; David Mendoza, National Campaign for Freedom of Expression; Judith Krug, American Library Association; others.